Developer: Spike Chunsoft
Publisher: NIS America
Category: Visual Novel, Adventure
Story:
You play as Makoto Naegi, who at the start of the game is heading towards Hope Peak Academy for his first day of school there.
Hope Peak Academy is a unique type of prep school. It only scouts and accepts the Ultimate of students. Students such as Junko Enoshima the Ultimate Fashonista, Kiyotaka Ishimaru the Ultimate Moral Compass, or Aoi Asahina the Ultimate Swimming Pro. Makoto is the Ultimate Lucky Student, he was chosen to join the school through a lottery system.
He enters the school and as things begin to distort he loses consciousness. He awakens in an empty class room with barred windows. He gets up and decides to head back to the school entrance to see if the other classmates have arrived. They are all there and appear to have woken up to similar circumstances. However at the school entrance there is a giant vault door prohibiting any of them from leaving. Soon they are summoned to the gym.
They are greeted by a robotic bear named Monokuma. He explains to the students that there is no way of escape and no chance of rescue. There is only one way to be free of the Academy. Kill one of your fellow classmates and avoid detection during the Class Trial. If the 'Blackened' is successful in his or her's deception he will live and be allowed to leave the school, while all the remaining students will die.
Gameplay:
The game is mostly in first person and you are able to roam the halls of the school, talk to others and build relationships up to learn more about them.
Each chapter consists of several parts; Free Mode, Story, Investigation, and Trial.
Free Mode is where you can roam, buy presents, discover monocoins, and talk to classmates.
Story sections occur when you are forced along the main narrative.
Investigation begins once the Discovery call has been made. It's consists of a simple point/click discover the clues around the school that will help you solve the case.
Class Trials are the final portion and is the bulk of the main story. During the Trials you partake in several minigames to discover the truth and figure out who is the 'Blackened'.
Of the minigames there are rhythm, hangman, and a odd health bar depletion objective. In the end you reassemble how the murder unfolded to finish off the chapter.
The primary minigame is 'Nonstop Debate', people will speak without pause and you must find the lies/inaccurate info and shoot them down with 'Truth Bullets."
The game gives very useful tutorials that are skipable if you choose.
Once the story is complete you unlock a new 'School Mode'. It's a weird crafting meets relationship builder mix. Monokuma tasks you with crafting him a statue and that request will last a set amount of days. You must gather the proper resources and create his statue by his due date. If you're successful he will give you Trip Tickets to use to build your relationship with one of your classmates. Maxing your relationships will give you a unique ending and in order to get the game's platinum trophy you'll have to repeat the mode a few times.
Final Notes:
I really enjoyed all the characters and spending the extra time with them really fleshes their character out more. Some of the trials may be predictable but it was still enjoyable learning how everything unfolded. The story relies heavily on spoilers that I will avoid, but the story is one of my favorite from recent years.
The mini games during the trial are all well done and they break most of them up enough so they don't become too repetitive. The only one you really have to do many times is 'Nonstop Debate', but it never got old for me as each time it appeared it was a different falsehood you had to correct.
I Highly Recommend this title to anyone who is interested in visual novel games like Virtue's Last Reward or the Ace Attorney games. Through the first half of 2014 it is my current Game of the Year, and one of my favorite Vita games of all time.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Publisher: NIS America
Category: Visual Novel, Adventure
Story:
You play as Makoto Naegi, who at the start of the game is heading towards Hope Peak Academy for his first day of school there.
Hope Peak Academy is a unique type of prep school. It only scouts and accepts the Ultimate of students. Students such as Junko Enoshima the Ultimate Fashonista, Kiyotaka Ishimaru the Ultimate Moral Compass, or Aoi Asahina the Ultimate Swimming Pro. Makoto is the Ultimate Lucky Student, he was chosen to join the school through a lottery system.
He enters the school and as things begin to distort he loses consciousness. He awakens in an empty class room with barred windows. He gets up and decides to head back to the school entrance to see if the other classmates have arrived. They are all there and appear to have woken up to similar circumstances. However at the school entrance there is a giant vault door prohibiting any of them from leaving. Soon they are summoned to the gym.
They are greeted by a robotic bear named Monokuma. He explains to the students that there is no way of escape and no chance of rescue. There is only one way to be free of the Academy. Kill one of your fellow classmates and avoid detection during the Class Trial. If the 'Blackened' is successful in his or her's deception he will live and be allowed to leave the school, while all the remaining students will die.
Gameplay:
The game is mostly in first person and you are able to roam the halls of the school, talk to others and build relationships up to learn more about them.
Each chapter consists of several parts; Free Mode, Story, Investigation, and Trial.
Free Mode is where you can roam, buy presents, discover monocoins, and talk to classmates.
Story sections occur when you are forced along the main narrative.
Investigation begins once the Discovery call has been made. It's consists of a simple point/click discover the clues around the school that will help you solve the case.
Class Trials are the final portion and is the bulk of the main story. During the Trials you partake in several minigames to discover the truth and figure out who is the 'Blackened'.
Of the minigames there are rhythm, hangman, and a odd health bar depletion objective. In the end you reassemble how the murder unfolded to finish off the chapter.
The primary minigame is 'Nonstop Debate', people will speak without pause and you must find the lies/inaccurate info and shoot them down with 'Truth Bullets."
The game gives very useful tutorials that are skipable if you choose.
Once the story is complete you unlock a new 'School Mode'. It's a weird crafting meets relationship builder mix. Monokuma tasks you with crafting him a statue and that request will last a set amount of days. You must gather the proper resources and create his statue by his due date. If you're successful he will give you Trip Tickets to use to build your relationship with one of your classmates. Maxing your relationships will give you a unique ending and in order to get the game's platinum trophy you'll have to repeat the mode a few times.
Final Notes:
I really enjoyed all the characters and spending the extra time with them really fleshes their character out more. Some of the trials may be predictable but it was still enjoyable learning how everything unfolded. The story relies heavily on spoilers that I will avoid, but the story is one of my favorite from recent years.
The mini games during the trial are all well done and they break most of them up enough so they don't become too repetitive. The only one you really have to do many times is 'Nonstop Debate', but it never got old for me as each time it appeared it was a different falsehood you had to correct.
I Highly Recommend this title to anyone who is interested in visual novel games like Virtue's Last Reward or the Ace Attorney games. Through the first half of 2014 it is my current Game of the Year, and one of my favorite Vita games of all time.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
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